Oh, boy! The nice folks over at Massdrop are giving away a Pilot Vanishing Point Fountain Pen, in black matte with fine nib, plus a bottle of Pilot Iroshizuku ink in the much-beloved Kon-Peki blue and they wanted the fine readers at The Well-Appointed Desk to be the first to know.
To enter, just click this link and set-up a free account. This requires entering your email address and a password only. Easy Peasy! Massdrop will collect the entries and randomly pick a winner next week.
Thanks, Massdrop!
UPDATE: Attn: Current Massdrop members! If you are already a member, you can still enter. Leave a comment here and tell Massdrop what product you’d like to see on Massdrop.
My gateway pen was the Pilot Precise V5. I’ve always had good results with it and found it to be one of my favorite big box store pens. Sadly, they are disposable plastic pens. I had always hoped there would be a way to refill them. And now there is! The V5 Hi-Tecpoint 0.5 Cartridge System (Way to come up with a confusing naming convention there, Pilot!) is the answer.
The V5 Hi-Tecpoint uses the same Pilot cartridges as Pilot’s fountain pens which means the pen could be fit with a converter as well. I believe either the Con-20 or the Con-50 should fit but you could also syringe fill the cartridge the came with the pen.
Aesthetically, the pen is the same round, straight barrel as the original V5 Precise. The clip is plastic rather than metal though. There’s new branding graphics which I’m lukewarm about but giant graphics on pens seem to be standard operating procedure for pens under $25 so I can’t fault them for going with the trend.
On my first test run, I removed the stock black ink cartridge and replaced it with a colored ink cartridge from the Pilot Mixable Color set for the Parallel Pens. I chose the violet cartridge. I was not sure how effective running water through it would be for removing the previous ink color so I just swapped out the cartridges and scribbled for about a half a page until the ink color shifted from black to purple.
The Parallel ink cartridge seems to work fine in the V5 Hi-Techpoint. I had no issues with flow or feathering so I feel pretty confident that I can jump to standard fountain pen inks next. Can I tell you how excited I am about this?
If you’re looking for a refillable rollerball that can take fountain pen ink, for $3.20 this is as good an option as the J. Herbin and gives a considerably finer line. The Hi-Tecpoint is also available in the V7 0.7mm version if you perfer a bolder line.
DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Jet Pens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
When I heard about the Bullet Journal Kickstarter campaign last fall, I jumped in with both feet. First and foremost, to support a project that has benefited a lot of people. But secondly, in hopes of getting a grasp on the concept of Bullet Journaling. I am starting to wonder if I’m the only person in the world who hasn’t quite understood how Bullet Journaling works. I hoped that by backing the project, I’d receive enough documentation and instruction to make the system make sense to me. I received the backer-only documentation earlier in the Kickstarter campaign and I printed it out but just reading through the material didn’t make it all gel in my brain.
So today, I watched the original introductory video to the Bullet Journal system again in hopes that the whole Bullet Method might finally stick into my head. I’m think I need to just jump in and try the methods outlined on the video and on the web site and then hope that the details fill themselves in for me.
I just received my special edition Bullet Journal notebook created by Leuchtturm 1917 for the Bullet Journal Kickstarter and it has a lot of really nice features included. There are three ribbon bookmarks to mark multiple spots in the book as you work as well as pre-printed pages for the index, page numbers (which is a feature of all the Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks) and a guide to using the Bullet Journal system printed in the book. The remainder of the pages of the book feature page numbers and a light dot grid for maximum flexibility.
The notebook is a standard Leuchtturm 1917 Medium size (145 x 210 mm) with 80 gsm “ink-proof” paper and 240 pages. The paper is the warm white used in standard Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks. Its a pleasing creamy color that is not stark white but not some yellow-y as to alter ink colors dramatically. In the back of the book is the standard Leuchtturm 1917 pocket and the notebook has a vertical elastic to keep it closed.
The dot grid appears in light grey dots and is pretty unobtrusive which is how guides should be. The spacing is 5mm between the dots.
There are three bookmarks in the book – a white, black and grey – all from a textured grosgrain ribbon. I don’t think there’s quite enough color contrast between the grey and the black but I appreciate that they’ve added additional bookmarks to mark varying places throughout the notebook.
Hopefully the “unlimited” edition will soon be available for sale to folks who did not get the opportunity to back the Kickstarter campaign but are interested in trying the Bullet Journal system in this custom-designed notebook.
If you want to try the system for yourself, visit the Bullet Journal web site to learn how to turn any notebook into a Bullet Journal.
I like to liberate refills from the assorted plastic pens I have accumulated over the years. These are all those gel pens I’ve purchased over the years from Jet Pens. While I love the flow of the refills, the lackluster plastic barrels leave me wanting.
I started opening each plastic pen and discovering that they are almost always a standard sized refill like a Pilot G2-sized or Hi-Tec C-sized. There are also far more colors and point sizes available in the full pens than in most refill-only options. Red, blue and black are fine for many folks but I want to be able to choose orange, evergreen, turquoise or purple, if the mood strikes.
By hacking the refills out of plastic pens, I created an almost unlimited supply of potential refills for my favorite pen bodies. And by using these fine gel refills, I have catapulted certain pens into EDC pens because now they are not only beautiful and comfortable but can contain the exact right refill for me.
This habit started with Karas Kustoms and the Render K and RETRAKT pens. The lengthy list of possible refills led me to create the Refill Guide and really start experimenting with trying different refills with different pens.
I even save the springs in a plastic retractable to help stabilize a refill in a machined pen. If the refill fits but is too long, trim it down with a pair of sharp scissors. Empty refills can be trimmed to add length to a too-short refill to fit into a different pen as well. With each plastic pen costing less than a couple bucks, its not a tragedy if you make a mistake.
Today, the Hallmark.com featured a tutorial and free printables designed by me! Visit the site to find out how to make an envelope liner for your Mother’s Day card or even make your own envelope using found papers like gift bags and wrapping paper.
Pens:
